Oil Versus Green Energy: Data Is The Weapon Of Choice

Human beings are now heading into an historical period that we will be teaching our children and grandchildren about for years and years to come. It will be this generation that could make the final leap into a dominant green energy world. Fossil fuels aren’t going anywhere just yet but the technology to make it obsolete in our daily lives is encroaching. Big oil drilling is slowing down and after the 2014 oil price crash where it became around $35-40 per barrel, are the days of crude oil numbered? It certainly is beginning to feel that way. As long as there are people investing in both, the thrill of the competition is going to keep this rivalry of ideologies very entertaining for the rest of us. Both oil and green energy companies are choosing their weapon of choice as data. Knowing the flow of products, the expenditure of resources, the increase or decrease in sales etc, is so valuable to keep the ship sailing straight and true.

Weather plays a pivotal role for wind and wave energy. In fact, without wind and without waves, these two green energies become useless. However working together with the solar industry, and hiring expert meteorologists, gathering data of weather patterns not just from day to day, but using the knowledge of many decades back, accurate predictions can be made. With these, an entire grid of wind turbines can be activated, and wave energy technologies also. Solar panels are being deployed in their thousands per square mile by companies which means the energy generation from capturing sun rays is substantially more. However, it makes the maintenance of the panels a little more difficult. With data analytics, the status of each panel can be updated and checked whenever required. It gives the operational crews a much better look at what needs fixing and what is doing fine. Thus time and money are better spent and costs of running such technology become less and less.

Greasing the wheel

Small oil producers are growing in number while major drilling fields are slowly dying out. Rather than the big reservoirs of crude oil, smaller pumps owned by individuals could be the future for companies in the industry. The trouble is that these smaller wells are going to be far between each other, and thus a driver has to check on the status of the pump by sight and touch. He or she will then order the taking away of the collected oil and delivery to customers. Greasebook is a way to collect and share data about the wells while limiting communication by phone, text, and email. The administrator can send orders to the technician about what is needed to be done at each well and in return, the oil technician sends back data instantly about the report they have made. How many barrels have been filled, whether repairs need to be made or were made, the condition of the pipes and how much profit each well has made and much more, are all relayed in real-time.

One day we will see the last barrel of oil being shipped. It will be in our generation. So far, both the green energy and oil industry are even stevens when it comes to efficiency in production due to big data helping both industries to remain modern.